A New Year's Challenge to Change!

Over the past few months, I have experienced a series of significant changes:

(1) My son and his wife moved into our home for a short stay and then left for Uganda, Africa for an 11 month trip. Their willingness to give up all they have to go where people need mentors and caregivers is beyond-inspiring to me!

(2) I started a Masters of Social Work program at USC--intensive reading, lots of writing, and not enough hours in my day!  I'm enthralled by what I'm learning.  I'm encouraged, knowing I'm in the right place at the right time in my life.

(3) We put our house up for sale--it is the end of one chapter that will lead to a new--somewhat unknown--chapter in our lives. I have entered one of those seasons where I don't know where I'm going!  Those seasons can either elicit either a spirit of adventure or anxiety!  I'm choosing adventure:)!

Today is January 1st, 2012.  It is the first day of a new year. It isn't a magical day UNLESS you choose to treat it as a special day of renewed hope, expectation, and change.    

Is it possible--to change in an instant or on one day, or just wake up a new person?

I'm convinced of this possibility because I experienced a radical, life-altering change of heart and mind--one afternoon in August of 1976. I was suicidal, addicted to alcohol and drugs, and possibly pregnant at the age of 21. Randomly, a stranger offered to pray for me.  This began the immediate process of change.  The stranger told me that God loved me and forgave me. I wasn't religious, but I knew I needed a miracle because I had tried to quit drinking and I just couldn't change by myself. At the time, I didn't realize how transforming the power of forgiveness would be.  But that is what changed me THAT DAY, THAT MOMENT.  First I believed--and then acted like I believed--two simple things the stranger told me:

* God loved me.  Everyone knew I was helpless. My friends, family and co-workers had seen my collapse. I was a mess, unable to help myself.  Yet for some reason, I believed that God loved me anyway.  That first thought was powerful enough to give me the courage to love myself enough NOT to take my life. It gave me hope to live.

* God forgave me. I had done so many awful things to myself and others, I knew didn't deserve forgiveness.  But the stranger made it clear that I would never deserve or earn forgiveness. It was a gift from God.  So I accepted the gift.

I walked out of the room THAT DAY and I physically looked different (my facial expressions had changed from depressed and anxious and guilty to peaceful). And I acted different (I was hope-filled, joy-filled, no longer suicidal, and I didn't want or need a drink). I even unashamedly told others that I was loved and forgiven by God and though they weren't religious, they couldn't deny that "wasted, suicidal Becky" was unexplainably different.  She was a changed woman in one afternoon.  And "the change" lasted for the next 35 years.

Most importantly, I knew that there were others just like me--depressed, anxious, addicted.  They needed to hear this life-changing message of love and forgiveness.  I hadn't been to a doctor or a hospital.  I wasn't given pills.  If love and forgiveness had changed me, I wanted others to know they too could be loved and forgiven, no matter what they'd done.  So I set out on a meaningful path--over 35 years ago--to tell as many people as I could that their lives were meant for something: they were supposed give love and extend forgiveness whenever they had the chance!

Nazi concentration camp survivor and renowned psychiatrist Victor Frankl, author of Man's Meaning of Significance, wrote, "...every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. . . one of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above (such) conditions, to grow beyond them. Man is capable of changing the world for the better, and of changing himself for the better if necessary."

May this day be the beginning of a new life for you and those you love!  May you accept God's love, acknowledge His forgiveness toward you and then go out into your world, loving and forgiving others.  This little change--of attitude--will have a significant, meaningful and big result in your life and upon those who know you!  I promise.

Be encouraged and Happy New Year!

Becky